If Town Meeting approves warrant article 33, the town may pay up to 100 percent of the cost to bring private roads up to standards and make them public ways.

Thus far, expenses to make roads public have been prohibitive to residents, but Selectman Michael Butler and Planning Board Chairman Michael Podolski are proposing that the town be responsible for the costs to upgrade private roads if all of the road’s abutters are in agreement.

"The intent of the change is to have the town pay for layout, design and construction," Butler said at a meeting on May 1.

According to Butler, Dedham has 17 miles of private streets that were not constructed to the standards of the 1954 subdivision law and lack basic requirements, such as proper draining and suitable foundations.

"The private roads are almost to the point of being a disgrace, full of pot holes," Podolski said. "You can barely drive in them."

Presently, residents living in the 2,000 homes on private ways must pay to upgrade their streets to town standards, and then request that the Board of Selectmen and Town Meeting accept the roads as public ways. Abutters can pay upfront, or they can ask the town to cover the costs and a yearly surcharge is added to their tax bills for about five years. But, only one street has undergone that process, Butler said.

Under the proposed article, abutters would sign a contract with the town that would allow their road to be added to the town’s road pavement plan, Butler said.

However, Town Meeting member Susan Fay asked what would happen to residents’ properties that might be impacted during construction.

"My friends who live on private ways, which I rep, are concerned that when they bring their road to public standards they lose some of their front lawn," she said.

According to Butler, each road is a unique case and 100 percent of the abutters would have to approve a layout of what the street would look like post construction. Once the layout is approved, Town Meeting would vote on it.

"We want abutters to review the layout before it goes to the next step," Butler said, adding that private streets leading to public ways would most likely be upgraded prior to dead ends or those with just a few homes.

It will cost about $12 million to renovate all 200 segments of private ways, according to Butler.

"To repave a public road today costs generally about half a million dollars a mile," he said. "Private ways, because they’re in worse shape, we’re estimating it to be about $750,000 a mile."

Town Meeting will be held at 7 p.m. May 19 at Dedham High School, 140 Whiting Avenue.

Staff writer Sara Feijo can be reached at 781-433-8336 or sfeijo@wickedlocal.com. Follow @s_fjo on Twitter. Like The Dedham Transcript on Facebook and follow @DedhamTranscrip on Twitter.